No Court Verdict Issued on Iranian Assets Freeze

Valiollah Seif, the governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), said a Luxembourg court responsible for freezing $1.6 billion of Iranian assets in the European country has not issued a final verdict on the case yet.

Speaking to reporters in Tehran on the sidelines of a cabinet session on Wednesday, Seif pointed to a freeze on $1.6 billion in assets belonging to the CBI in Luxembourg and said the court has accepted to reconsider the case.

He emphasized that no final verdict has been issued yet, adding that Iran can still win the case by its legal arguments.

His comments came after the New York Times recently reported that a judge in Luxembourg has put a freeze on $1.6 billion in assets of the CBI.

Meanwhile, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht Ravanchi has announced that the ruling dates back to the time before the onset of the nuclear negotiations between Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) that resulted in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

According to the diplomat, the property is still in Europe and no new development has taken place recently, saying lawyers of the Central Bank of Iran and of the Luxembourgian company holding the assets are in consultation over the issue.

The request to seize Iran’s dollar bonds in Luxembourg was made by the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the US.

This is while none of the 19 hijackers that carried out the attacks were Iranian citizens. Fifteen were from Saudi Arabia while the others were from the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Lebanon.

Over the last two decades, victims of terrorist attacks have racked up more than $50 billion in default judgments against Iran, according to the New York Times.